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Semi-structured interview regarding provider experiences of providing mental health treatment to OIF/OEF Veterans. The interview takes approximately 1 hour to complete and is conducted one time with each participant.

The purpose of this study is to gather information from VISN 19 Denver VA mental health professionals regarding their perspectives of necessary resources to provide best practice mental health service to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Veterans. Specifically, this study aims to describe provider perspectives regarding the following: a) clinical needs of OIF/OEF Veterans; b) collaboration and referral processes; c) barriers to providing optimal treatment to this cohort d) provider needs and resources that may improve service delivery to this cohort; e) provider perspectives regarding psychiatric outcomes in this cohort; and f) professional satisfaction. Support for this study is provided by previous research evaluating Veteran's Administration (VA) needs to provide service to OIF/OEF Veterans (Sayer, et al. 2009; Friedmann-Sanchez, et al. 2008).

The above information will be obtained using semi-structured interview. Hypotheses are not provided as this is an exploratory qualitative study.

Detailed Description

No hypotheses are associated with this study as this is a qualitative study wherein subjects will participate in a semi-structured interview developed specifically for this study, which serves as the outcome measure. Up to 30 providers will be interviewed.

Data Analysis Interviews will be transcribed in their entirety and de-identified. Dr. Signoracci and 4 additional MRIECC researchers will independently code each interview for themes. Finally, group meetings with Dr. Signoracci and MIRECC researchers will be held in order to achieve larger consensus regarding such unique and universal themes (Rubin & Rubin, 1995).

Any reporting of information regarding: a) length of time employed at Denver VA; b) length of time employed within VA system; c) provider professional title; d) provider degree; f) professional licenses held; g) clinic/service in which provide services will be done in the aggregate, across clinics. No individual data will be reported with respect to these items. Also, any selected quotes that are reported will remain de-identified.

Power analyses will not be conducted because no hypothesis quantitative testing is being done, and therefore there are no parameters to estimate. With qualitative designs one conducts interviews until reaching the saturation point. In other words, subsequent interviews do not yield any new information (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). Previous experience (Brenner et al., 2008) suggests that 25 completed interviews should provide a wide enough range of responses for important themes to emerge.

Study Type

Observational

Study Design

Observational Model: CohortTime Perspective: Retrospective

Target Follow-Up Duration

Not Provided

Biospecimen

Not Provided

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Denver VA Mental Health Providers Up to 30 providers will be interviewed.

Condition

Mental Health Services

Intervention

Other: No Intervention

No Intervention

Study Groups/Cohorts

Denver VA OIF/OEF and mental health providers

Denver VA OIF/OEF and mental health providers

Intervention: Other: No Intervention

Publications *

Not Provided

* Includes publications given by the data provider as well as publications
identified by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number) in Medline.